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Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Low-Fat Blackberry Oatmeal Muffins

This recipe was born out of two problems: 1) I hate taking time to make healthy breakfasts, 2) one healthy breakfast I do like is steel cut oats made in my crock pot overnight, but it makes way more oats than one Julie can eat, so I always have too much left over. And then, one day, it occurred to me that I could use the leftover oatmeal to make muffins, and, for just one second, ALL WAS RIGHT WITH THE WORLD.

This recipe is fast, easy and waist-line friendly! For those of you out there counting weight watchers points, these muffins are only three points plus points each! According to SparkPeople's recipe calculator, the stats break down to: Calories, 115 / Fat 2.4g / Carbs 24.6g / Fiber 2.3g/ Protein 3g. I'm sure you could lower the fat/calories even more if you use egg substitute instead of real eggs.

Since healthy baking is way less fun than non-healthy baking, you must first make sure you have some really awesome music to sing and dance to while you are baking. Yes, this is part of the official recipe. The muffins will know if you are not dancing. You don't have to dance well-- to prove this, I've provided an internet simulated likeness of my dancing:

Seriously. You have no idea. It's bad. But it makes healthy projects SO much more fun.

ANYWAY...back to the muffins. Yes, these are healthy muffins, so they will have that slightly hockey-puck shape that healthy muffins have; but, they taste good.(For a printable version of this recipe, click here)Blackberry Oatmeal Muffins (Yield- 12 muffins)

Step #4 - Add the flour mixture to the egg/oatmeal mixture. Mix by hand, not with a mixer, until smooth.

Step #5 - Squish/chop the berries slightly. I like to use a pastry cutter to do this so that it breaks them apart just a bit without totally squashing them. I do this because I usually find whole berries in a muffin to be kind of too big, and because it releases the sweetness and flavor of the berries into the rest of the batter.

Step #6 - Gently stir the berries into the batter. Just barely mix them, so they berries swirl in the batter.

Step #7 - Fill muffin pans 3/4 of the way full of batter. I prefer not to use papers on my muffins, so I spray the pans with a healthy dose of cooking spray. If you would like less cleanup, use papers.

Step #8 - Bake for 17-20 min at 350* F. Muffins are done when a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. They do not rise as much as you would hope, which I find to be a symptom of many low-fat baked goods. But, they do turn out with a lighter, more moist consistency than most low-fat muffins I've tried.

These were the perfect solution to my enormous amount of fresh blackberries and my daughter's love of muffins. I think the oatmeal will be a great side part to the healthy side as it made the batter less runny. This is usually the problem of low cal/fat baking. Anyway, I didn't have any flax so I added a bit of honey. Most of all, I love that I had ALL the indredients in my pantry :) Thanks!